Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital
Palestina, 2008
Questo lavoro è parte di un progetto più ampio e articolato sulla condizione di salute mentale della popolazione palestinese nella West Bank e Striscia di Gaza, che mi ha visto lavorare in Israele/Territori Palestinesi per oltre un anno. Il presente portfolio è stato realizzato nell'Ospedale Psichiatrico di Betlemme (2008) e riguarda unicamente il dipartimento malati cronici, chiamato Villa che ospita 40 persone.
L’OMS e il Ministero della Salute Palestinese stanno lavorando per cambiare radicalmente le politiche in tema di salute mentale. Queste comprendono la futura chiusura dell'Ospedale, cercando nel contempo di incrementare progetti di cura individuali e di “presa in carico” realizzati in un regime di rete promuovendo il protagonismo di utenti e familiari per contrastare ogni pratica di tipo coercitivo e qualsivoglia forma di discriminazione e, contestualmente, rendere operativi sia programmi di prevenzione che di lotta allo stigma.
The Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital is the only hospital of this kind in Palestine, providing hospital care for the patients from the whole Palestinian territory (but only exceptionally from Gaza for the known reasons).
The main hospital building (in which today are settled the administration, the doctors' offices, occupational therapy and the out-patient clinic for Community Mental Health Services of the Bethlehem area) was built in 19th century as an Armenian orphanage.
Under British Protectorate in 1922 it became a male psychiatric hospital (female wards were settled in another building in Bethlehem, that's today a main general hospital of the town). At that time the hospital offered a treatment to both Arabic and Jewish people! In the historical year of 1948 the hospital governance was handed over to Jordanians, and female wards were transferred into it. Since 1994 the hospital is under governance of the Palestinian Authority and it's Ministry of Health.
Over the last few decades some new buildings were added to the hospital complex, so that today we have 4 male wards (the Acute male - 30 beds, the Convalscence male - 25 beds, and two wards with chronic patients, so called "Villa" with 40, and so called "Insulin" with 30 beds), as well as 3 female wards (their capacities are 12 beds in the Acute female, 20 in the Convalscence female, and 20 in the Chronic female ward.
